Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Christmas treats: Reindeer and Turtles Noses

It's November which means that my freezer is starting to fill up with Christmas goodies AND that I get to listen to Christmas music while I work in the kitchen. This puts me in a pretty good mood and makes me incredibly excited for the last 5-6 weeks of the year, especially now that we have Luke to share it all with.

I have 3 types of cookie dough frozen already but these are my first finished treats: Reindeer Noses and Turtle Noses. They are made basically the same way, are super easy, and really good.

To make both of these you will need:
-1 bag of Rolos
-1 bag of Hersey Kisses (I use dark chocolate)
-1-2 bags of M&Ms (if you care about colors and don't want to wait for the holidays bags you'll need two, otherwise one is enough)
-1 bag of pretzels (I use the grid like ones)

Reindeer Noses
1) Preheat oven to 275º.
2) Lay out pretzels on a baking sheet and place 1 kiss on each.
3) Bake for around 3 minutes. **
4) When they are the perfect amount of soft take them out of the oven and immediately press an M&M into the top of each one (I use red for Rudolph's nose). They should flatten down easily.
5) Cool on the counter until the cookie sheet is cool to the touch and then place in fridge for an hour or so, until the chocolate is set. I then box them up and freeze until Thanksgiving.

**You want them soft enough that you can easily push an M&M into them
but if you bake too long they burn and nobody likes burnt chocolate.
They will be shiny when done. I usually start with 3 minutes on the
timer and then check with an M&M. If it doesn't go down easily I
put them in for 1 more minute. I also have a very slow oven so you
might want to try just 2 minutes the first time.

Turtle Noses
1) Preheat oven to 350º
2) Lay out pretzels on a baking sheet and place 1 Rolo on each.
3) Bake for 4-5 minutes. They will be shiny when done.
4) Remove from the oven and immediately press an M&M (I use green for turtles) into the top of each one. Don't press too hard or caramel ooze out and make these hard to remove from the cookie sheet.
5) Leave on the counter until sheet is cool to touch and then place in the fridge for about an hour.

That's it!! If you don't have a very mobile baby to chase after these can both be done pretty quickly and keep for a very long time. Seriously, these probably won't all be gone until January maybe? They make for an easy, salty/chocolatey Christmas snack.